Anita McKinney, our first executive director, was leaving MSGL to live closer to her family in Florida. Her MSGL family held a farewell reception in her honor just before the winter break. These are photos of some of the children wishing her well.

Anita started working at MSGL in July, 1991 when the parent-owned school decided it needed a full-time. Up to then, the office staff coordinated with the Board of Directors. This next photo is actually from about 1996. It shows Anita with Beth Nichols, who was then the office manager, in the teeny, tiny office at Morton Center.

Beth is still with us and now works as our accountant. Anita has been working with Florida's Duval County Extension office since 1998. She is currently teaching personal financial management in Jacksonville. She is retiring in January and will start another "job" taking care of her twin grandchildren Dominic and Danica. She is excited about this new chapter in her life and told me, "They will be three by then , so I will start my own little Montessori home-school with them. I am looking forward to this next step!"

Best wishes, Anita! And happy Wednesday to you, faithful readers.

Related Posts

Wayback Wednesday: 1998 - Toddler Field Trip to Columbian Park

The MSGL photo archives are a bit disorganized and I usually have to sift through them to come up with a Wayback Wednesday post, but this week the work was already done. After leading the toddler families on this field trip to Lafayette's Columbian Park Zoo in the Spring of 1998, teacher Suman Harshvardhan put together this little photo album for the children.

Look who's ready for a ride on the Columbian Park Express!

Suman makes sure everyone has a snack. The old Big Dipper slide can be seen in the background. The slide was dismantled when the park was renovated in the early 00's. Here's a photo of the slide in it's glory days...

These kiddos are college freshmen (or nearly) now. Thanks for reading and have a great Wednesday!

Wayback Wednesday: 1998 - Peter Cottontails and Banana Bombs

1998 was a big year for MSGL because we announced our expansion so we received lots of media coverage. This week's Wayback Wednesday post features another story from the Lafayette Journal and Courier. On July 7th, a story about our summer camp cooking class filled the 4 Kidz Only page. (I love that the J&C embraced phonetic spelling!)

The photos are beautiful and the children's quotes, especially about date math, are really sweet.

Featured teacher,Revati Nemaniis still with MSGL today in the Catalpa class. The children featured in this article are now in college. Are any of them studying to be chefs? We would love to know. If you know Alie Magnante, Daniel Plesniak, Asher Bogdanove, or Andrew Staiger, please pass this along. It would be great to hear from them.

And maybe you and your young ones will give one of these recipes a go? We would love to hear about that, too.

Wayback Wednesday: 1998 - MSGL Announced Plans to Expand

15 years ago the Lafayette Journal and Courier announced MSGL's plans to add an elementary program and move all of its programs to a new space.

The Morton Community Center on Chauncey Avenue had been MSGL's home since 1985.

As the article states, the new elementary program was originally going to be housed in a home on Rainbow Drive that had been donated by an MSGL family. A change of plans relocated that first class to some available classroom space inside the Temple Israel on Cumberland Avenue.

In February 2001, all of our programs, from the parent-infant class through elementary, moved into our permanent home in the former Calvary Baptist church on Soldiers Home Road.

In 2007, the elementary classes moved into the Montessori House, a remodeled home adjacent to the campus.

MSGL has plans to expand once again in the near future to add a second toddler classroom and a gym/gross motor space.

Wayback Wednesday: Taking a winter break

Winter is upon us and the staff of the Wayback Wednesday department is preparing to head south for the season. (The staff certainly wishes this was true.) Okay, we're not really going anywhere but we have discovered a treasure trove of awesome photos. We will be scanning them and organizing them over winter break. When everyone returns in January you can look forward to the beginning of "Building MSGL." It's the story of how our families built the MSGL campus that we know and love today.

To whet your appetites I am posting one photo from that winter of 2000. Look at this photo and see if you can figure out where in the school it is. The first commenter to get it correct wins a free Wayback Wednesday t-shirt. (The staff certainly wishes this was true.) Okay, no t-shirt but you can still be first. Have fun guessing!

Have a terrific Wednesday and an awesome winter break!

Wayback Wednesday: 1992 - Class Photos

Do you recognize anyone in this photo of the MSGL staff from 1992? We have grown from a staff of 12 in 1992 to over 30 today, 21 years later.

Here are the year's class photos. If you recognize any of the children, all should be in their mid-twenties now, consider directing them here. We would love to hear from them and from the teachers.

Class A - Morning Preprimary, 1992

Teachers Maureen Northacker (L) and Durga Desai (R).

Class B - Morning Preprimary, 1992

Teachers Linda Swain (L) and Ginny Meyer (R).

Class D - Morning Preprimary, 1992

Teachers Judy West (L) and Nakhat Ahmad (R).

Class E - Afternoon Preprimary, 1992

Teacher Mary Sue Reutebuch

Class C - 3-day and 5-day Toddlers, 1992

Teachers Karen Weddle, Suman Harshvardhan, and Prafull Rathore.

Class C - 2-day Toddlers, 1992

Teachers Karen Weddle, Suman Harshvardhan, and Prafull Rathore.

Class - Extended Day Afternoon, 1992

Teachers Ginny Meyer (L) and Linda Swain (R).

Thanks for reading and have a great Wednesday!

Wayback Wednesday: Halloween Edition

We're really reaching back here for Halloween gold - all the way back to 1989. Back in the day, the whole school had a costume parade in the Morton Center gymnasium. It was a big year for bunnies, clowns, and superheroes.

I hope you have enjoyed our first-ever Halloween edition of Wayback Wednesday. If you know anyone in these photos and want to share their names with us (or our website with them) we would really appreciate it. Have fun tomorrow and I hope you get lots and lots of candy - or not. Whichever you prefer :)